Wage and Hour Bulletin

March 2024

Your guide to compliance:  Agricultural law changes

It's spring, which means agricultural employers in Minnesota will be recruiting workers. There are state and federal laws that apply to agricultural employers and workers, including minimum wage, overtime, employee notice requirements and more. Some of these laws have been updated recently. The following is a brief overview.

Required employment statement

A broadened definition of agricultural labor and a change in an employer size requirement means more agricultural employers in Minnesota must provide migrant agricultural workers with an employment statement or a "migrant contract."

Previously, employers only had to provide an employment statement to migrant cannery workers. Now, employers must provide an employment statement to all recruited migrant agricultural workers, who are defined as people at least 17 years of age who travel more than 100 miles to Minnesota from another state to work in agriculture based on an offer or the possibility of employment. (Note:  These workers are different from H-2A temporary agricultural workers who travel from another country, not another state, to Minnesota. This law does not apply to H-2A workers.)

In addition, state law previously defined an employer of migrant agricultural workers as someone who hired 30 migrant agricultural workers in a year; now the threshold is just one migrant agricultural worker in a year.

Find a sample employment statement in English and Spanish, as well as other information about wage and hour law relevant to agricultural workers, at dli.mn.gov/agriculture.

Meat-processing worker notice translated

Under the new Safe Workplaces for Meat and Poultry Processing Workers Act, all meat-processing employers in Minnesota must provide written information and notifications about employee rights under the act to workers in their language of fluency at least annually.

The Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) has prepared a sample employee notice that employers can use. It is available in English, Hmong, Russian, Somali and Spanish on the Workplace notices and posters webpage.

Save the date:  Agricultural, meat- and poultry-processing employers and workers webinar April 23 DLI's Labor Standards Division is providing a series of webinars to help workers and employers better understand the state's wage and hour laws. The first webinar on Tuesday, April 23, will provide information about laws applicable to employers and workers in agricultural and meat- and poultry-processing industries. Register at events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/ed32dfbf-cc68-4a4e-af80-945a035d9c28@eb14b046-24c4-4519-8f26-b89c2159828c.

Earned sick and safe time (ESST) event in North Mankato

Learn about ESST and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act at South Central College in North Mankato on March 28, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Presenters include representatives from DLI and the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. The event is hosted by the CareerForce location in Mankato.

Register at (corrected link) https://forms.office.com/g/YmCMaQd75C?origin=lprLink.

Can't attend? Watch a recorded presentation about ESST in English, Somali or Spanish.

Wage and Hour Bulletin archive

Find past editions of The Wage and Hour Bulletin at dli.mn.gov/business/employment-practices/minnesota-wage-and-hour-bulletin.

Questions?

Labor Standards serves the people of Minnesota by providing
information about the state's wage, hour and employment laws.

Phone:  651-284-5075 or 800-342-5354
Email:  dli.laborstandards@state.mn.us
Website:  dli.mn.gov/laborlaw